His Lotus Flower
by Hatter of Madness
Summary: After the war, Cho needs a way to get her life back in order, so she becomes enrolled in Oxford University in England. When she meets Dudley Dursley, however, she quickly finds her life turned upside down all over again. Rated T. Slightly AU. Dudley and Cho slightly OOC.
1. Maths and Meet Ups

**~*~His Lotus Flower~*~  
by Hatter of Madness**

* * *

When Cho had announced one morning over breakfast to her mother and grandmother that she wanted to attend a university, the shock was apparent by their silence. "Why?" was all her mother could say.

"I want to get away from it all," Cho said. The wizarding world had just been in chaos: Voldemort was defeated, Hogwarts was being rebuilt, families were torn apart, Cho's included. Though her father was absent quite a bit in her upbringing, his death had rocked the little family. Cho was certain that she was done with death. First Cedric…then her headmaster…Marietta and then her father… She wanted a bit of a sanctuary following all of that, one that she had hoped university would bring to her.

"Away from what, lotus flower?" her grandmother asked. As the first of the Chang family to make the move from China to Europe, Chang Shan always referred to her only granddaughter as her 'lotus flower'. It was a pet name that Shan had adopted in Cho's infancy, one that she had never failed to use. Cho was unsure if her grandmother had ever actually used her given name.

"The reminders of the war," she said quietly.

Soon, Cho was enrolled at University of Oxford, majoring in philosophy. At the age of nineteen, she was behind her schoolmates, who had all started attending the school when they were seventeen or eighteen. College life, she quickly discovered, was much different than that of Hogwarts. There was no reward for good deeds or intelligence; there was no stereotypes, as far as she could tell… Things were eons different.

She roomed on campus and had a met a girl (who had decided that Cho was her best friend, though the feeling was not reciprocated) in her philosophy class, though the girl was majoring in religion. Her name was Elizabeth, and she was very catty, talking a mile a minute about various different topics. She reminded Cho of some of the Slytherins at Hogwarts.

Starting with Elizabeth, she immediately (and subconsciously) started sorting people into different Hogwarts houses when the classes were dull. When her professor started lecturing about alchemy, for instance, she sorted over half of the class. The teacher, she decided, was a Gryffindor; his daring and sometimes standoffish nature would only elsewhere be suited for Slytherin. Of course, she knew that Gryffindors were not the only brave ones at Hogwarts, while Slytherins were not the only sinister ones. But Elizabeth and Professor Dowling's personalities did not match any of the criteria for any other house.

In her advanced maths class, however, there was one boy that Cho just could not place anywhere. He was big and burly and was a bit reserved, but seemed to be well liked—like Cedric, she realized after a very long time. His blue eyes were always focused on the lesson, never wavering, until the bell signaled the end of class and he left in a whirl of boys and girls alike, always laughing and chattering about Merlin knew what.

"Miss Chang," Professor Whiting snapped once during this class, "can you _please _focus?"

"I'm sorry, Professor," she said amidst a sea of giggles.

"Well, now that you are back to earth, Miss Chang, would you care to come to the board and solve this equation?"

Cho looked past Professor Whiting at the board, where it seemed that a bunch of gibberish was written. How long had that been there? She stood, took three steps, and reread the equation. Though it was probably simple enough, Cho's head started to whirl just looking at it: _x² - 4 over x² - 3x - 10._

She continued walking to the board, took the pen off the table hesitantly, and uncapped it, her mind already at work. _She knew this. _She just _had _to. Slowly, her hand raised, and she began to write: _(x - 2)(x + 2) over (x + 2)(x - 5)._ The way that the class began to snicker, she knew that was wrong, then looked at the words again. _When is the following expression undefined? x² - 4 over x² - 3x - 10._

Oh, it suddenly made sense. Quickly she erased the problem and tried again. Eliminating the top of the fraction, she was left with x² - 3x - 10. Factoring the equation came next; she came up with (x + 2)(x - 5) = 0. Removing the parentheses, she arrived at x + 2 = 0 and x - 5 = 0. Therefore, the expression was undefined when x = -2 and x = 5. Writing that on the board, she started to put the pen down, but Professor Whiting was too fast, "Complete sentence, Miss Chang."

Cho quickly wrote the sentence and went back to her seat before he could ask her another question. "Excellent." She waited for the familiar droll of 'five points to Ravenclaw', but suddenly remembered that that would never come, not anymore anyway. As she walked past, she caught Mr. Mysterious, as she had dubbed the unsortable blond boy, looking at her, his eyes for once drawn away from the board. As soon as he saw her looking, however, they flicked back to the teacher.

Professor Whiting was writing the homework assignment on the board. "Now, class, take out your books and begin the homework." Cho pulled the battered secondhand book—the only one that her mother could afford—out of her book bag. Staring at the page, the problems started swimming before her eyes. _If Michael can paint the room in 10 hours and Sasha can paint the room in 18 hours, how many hours would it take for Michael and Sasha to paint the room together?_

Maths was a shockingly easy subject for her, having never attended a regular school. But the problems in the book just didn't make sense, because Professor Whiting refused to assess the work the way that she needed, and refused to answer questions as well. It was because of this that the class had time for homework, unlike Cho's other classes; Professor Whiting did not waste time, choosing instead to completely ignore helpless students and race through the lesson. Rather than attempt to make sense of the homework, she begin to chip away at what was left of her sleek silver nail polish.

When the bell finally signaled the end of class, she tried to reach her bag to start putting her things away, but the class had other plans. The throng of students that raced by made her feel small, and rendered her incapable of packing up. A usual occurrence in this class.

One thing Cho had not been prepared for when it came to attending university was how alone and homesick she felt. There was always an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach, and more often than not, she found herself worrying about her mother and grandmother. Were they okay? Did they need anything?

Finally, the group was gone. All of Cho's things were on the floor.

Sighing, she got on the ground and attempted to shove everything back in her bag, but as she reached for her maths notebook, she found that another hand was already on it, handing it to her. "You okay?"

Blushing, Cho took the notebook back from the unsortable, blue eyed, blond boy. "Fine," she muttered. "Just…"

"A bit of a wreck?" he asked. Cho nodded. "We've all been there. Freshman, right?"

Cho said nothing, having no idea what a 'freshman' was.

"The look on your face and your silence tells me 'yes'," he said, smiling.

"Hurry along," Professor Whiting said from behind them.

Cho stood, hoping beyond hope that, since she was having some of her first true interaction with a Muggle, she looked…nonmagical. She was wearing a skirt from her days at Hogwarts (she just couldn't bear to part with her schoolgirl things), along with an oversized blue, black, and white argyle jumper and a black wife beater underneath. Her navy Converse with black laces were untied as well, which she would have to tend to later.

If there was a problem with her attire, the boy didn't mention it. He himself was wearing a maroon jumper advertising something called 'Smeltings Academy'. As Cho slung her bag over her shoulder, he led her out the door and shut it behind him. "Whiting's class is tough," he said. "I've had him twice now. A real joy."

Cho was speechless, unsure of what else to say.

"Well, as long as I'm here," he said, holding out his hand. "Dudley Dursley, and you are?"

"Cho," she finally said.

"Scottish?" he asked. She nodded. "I could tell from your accent. It's real cute."

Was the popular boy from her maths class _hitting on her?_

"Thanks," she said.

"Are you shy?" he asked.

"I didn't used to be," she said. "I mean…well, at Ho—my secondary school, I was sort of, well…popular. I dated two really popular boys and I was captain of the Q—girls' football team." _You can't let him know you're not a Muggle, Cho, _she chastised herself. _Pull it together._

"'Two popular boys'?" Dudley echoed. "What happened with them?"

"One of them just didn't work out," Cho said, wondering how Harry and Ginny were doing. She hadn't spoken to either of them since the battle. "And, well…the other one…passed."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, really!" Dudley said. "I mean, I didn't—I don't mean to—I didn't mean to pry."

Cho smiled a shy smile, not realizing that they had left the maths building and were pretty much wandering the campus aimlessly. Luckily, maths was her last class for the day, so she was not in a big rush to go anywhere. "You remind me of him a lot, actually."

"Oh?" He seemed curious suddenly, smirking slightly. "How so?"

"Popular, muscular…handsome," she blurted out before she could stop herself. Realizing the mistake, she blushed bright scarlet.

Dudley, not seeming to notice, laughed. "Handsome? There's one I don't hear often…well, except from Mum."

Cho wondered if there was any truth to the statement. Dudley seemed so real and down to earth, and his looks were a definite bonus. If _that _wasn't attractive to someone, then she didn't know what was.

"You seem sweet, er…Cho, is it?"

She nodded, her long black ponytail bobbing up and down as she did. "Cho Chang."

"Well, Cho Chang. What are you majoring in?"

"Philosophy." Cho had assumed that it was going to be the thing that was most 'normal' to her; it seemed to be at least a little bit similar to magic. "And yourself?"

"Pre-law," he said.

Cho was completely unsure as to what this meant, but kept her mouth shut regardless. She had just met Dudley; there was no reason to let him know so soon that she wasn't like him…there was no reason for him to realize that she was a witch, and not a Muggle. If she didn't know what 'pre-law' was, then it would be obvious, in her mind, that she wasn't normal.

"Mmm," she finally said indifferently.

"My dad's a mechanic, in a way," he said. "He's sort of the head of this company that makes drills. Ever since I was born he's wanted me to do the same. Really, I've had no interest in any of it. He's thought that since we both went to the same secondary school—Smeltings—that I'd have this great big revelation and realize my true calling, or whatever. A load of rubbish, really. He's a bit of a tosser."

Cho wondered whether her father would have wanted her to be a healer like he was, had he survived the war. She honestly didn't know what she wanted to do with her life; for the time being, school was her main priority.

"Do you have any more classes today?"

She shook her head. "Maths is my last."

"Do you want to go with me to get some tea?" Dudley asked.

In all honesty, Cho was not much of a tea drinker. The only time that she had ever had the stuff was when Cedric had taken her to Madam Puddifoot's on their date before he had died. Though she had been there before with her friends, she had never tried the tea, which Cedric had ordered while they were there. In an attempt to impress him (which she realized was pointless), she too had ordered tea, but found it to be very bitter. But not wanting to sound rude, she agreed to go with Dudley.

He took her to the student parking, taking out his car keys and unlocking a car. Cho had honestly only ever seen one in her Muggle studies class, and it looked much different than how it had been described. Coming around to the passenger's side, he opened the door for her, allowing her to seat herself before going around the other side and getting in.

"Where are we going, exactly?" she asked as he started the car.

He adjusted the rearview mirror slightly, looking behind him to make sure there were no students coming behind him. Putting the car in reverse, his eyes fell on Cho again and he smiled. "Starbucks."

As they left the student parking, the only thing Cho could think was, _What the hell is Starbucks?_

* * *

**Hi ^.^ I, along with others, now ships Chudley after wondering if the Chudley Cannons was JKR's way of telling us that Chudley is canon. I think they'd be an interesting pair, plus Cho **_**does **_**marry a Muggle ultimately. Also, I know it doesn't mention anything on Cho's family life nor the death of Marietta, but um fanfiction lol. Being from the States, please excuse any glaring mistakes, thank you. I have never left this country but twice (both were still in North America, however, soo). Please review, it is three a.m. and I'm tired ^.^**

**- Hatter of Madness**


	2. Life of the Party

For the life of her, Cho could not understand proofs in algebra. Why were they needed, anyway? If a teacher taught a certain thing, it was not like anyone was going to try to argue with them. There was no need to _prove _anything.

Suddenly, the door to the library opened and slammed. Cho cringed; at Hogwarts, Madam Pince would never have allowed that.

Brisk footsteps followed the slamming of the door, and Cho's table quaked when there was a loud _smack._ She looked up to see Elizabeth glaring at her. "Hello," Cho said quietly, cursing her luck but at the same time thankful that she had a distraction from her homework.

"What the _fuck, _Cho," was Elizabeth's greeting.

"What?"

"You and…_Dursley _went to Starbucks on Tuesday?"

She fidgeted uncomfortably in her chair, her Ravenclaw jumper slipping off of one shoulder. She didn't bother to fix it, however, instead allowing it to dangle there as she tried to change the subject. "How are you, Elizabeth?"

"Why the hell would you want to hang out with Dursley?"

"You mean Dudley?" She was sure that he had told her his surname, but at the moment, she just couldn't place it. However, since she had never heard of Starbucks before—but found upon arrival that it was only a Muggle coffee shop that apparently also served tea—and had only gone once in her life, it had to be Dudley that Elizabeth was referring to.

"_Of course_ I mean Dudley! What other 'Dursley' do you know?"

"He's…very nice," she said hesitantly. It seemed that Elizabeth, however, was not a fan of Dudley's.

"He's also a Grade A loser, Cho," she snapped, sitting across from her 'friend'. "I mean, _look _at him and tell me he's not!"

"He's decent enough," Cho said, fidgeting again. She hoped that it didn't get out that she had agreed to go on another Starbucks date—_if _it could be considered a date—with Dudley sometime in the future… "I mean, he helped me after maths on Tuesday, and we were going to, well, hang out after his literature class."

"God, Cho Chang, you're an idiot," Elizabeth said. She leaned across the table, dropping her voice a small bit. Cho leaned forward as well. "My brother went to Smeltings with him a few years ago, and he told me _all _about him, and his family. His family is the biggest group of morons ever. He and his dad used to be, like, morbidly obese. Well, Dudley slimmed down, but the dad didn't. It makes me wonder how in the hell his mum ended up with him. But he was a bully in secondary school. He would shove kids' heads into toilets and stuff and beat them up just for the hell of it. He beat up my younger brother Mark once. Just cause he could."

Cho didn't believe a word of it, but she wasn't sure if that was because it was so outlandish or because it was so horrible.

"And that family…there's something funny going on there. He had a cousin that lived with him—Howard, or something, I don't remember—that just _disappeared _for most of the year. He'd be there for the summer, but then he'd just _vanish. _They claim that he went to St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys, but I had a cousin that went there, and when I asked, he had never heard of the kid. _Never._"

"So what does that have to do with Dudley?" Cho asked, wondering just how much family Elizabeth must have had if she had three separate stories just based on their accounts. She also wondered how Elizabeth would have responded if she knew that she used to disappear every year for the same amount of time to go to Hogwarts.

"I don't know, you tell me," she said. Seemingly bored with the conversation and as though she had read Cho's mind, she asked, "Where did _you _go to school?"

"Uh…you know," Cho said quickly. She needed an answer, and quick. "I…moved a lot, you know?"

"Oh." That answer obviously bored Elizabeth. "_I _went to Howard of Effingham, in Surrey. But you're from Scotland, I doubt you've heard of it." It was obvious that her favorite topic of conversation was herself. "Are you going to Deana's party tonight?"

It was Friday, so classes for the week were finally over. Deana, one of Elizabeth's friends, was having a party, and told everyone that she personally invited to 'bring friends'. Elizabeth alone could probably invite fifty people, Cho included. If she went, she just hoped that no one would call the cops on them…like the last time. "I don't know," Cho said. She had actually planned on Apparating that night to Sutter's Grove, where Cedric, her father, and Marietta were buried. She hadn't 'seen' them in so long, and college life was starting to eat away at her. She had so much she wanted to tell them, too. Wherever people went after death, she knew that they'd be listening.

"Well, you should go," Elizabeth said, "because Ralph Martin is going to be there, and he's _so fit._" Cho couldn't honestly tell whether Elizabeth wanted Cho to hook up with Ralph or if she would prefer to keep him in her company.

"I'll see."

"Well, you better 'see' quickly, cause her party is in two hours." Elizabeth took out a compact mirror and began reapplying her lip gloss. "And hey, Mark Jackson will be there." Cho wondered whether she was Elizabeth's only female friend. "I think he's friends with Dur—Dudley. And if Mark will be there, then I'm sure your friend will be too."

Dudley didn't strike Cho as a party type, but she pushed it from her mind. "I'll think about it," she repeated. There went her plans for the evening. If she even humored Elizabeth, then she couldn't sneak out of her dorm to go to the cemetery; Elizabeth would be there every fifteen minutes to invite her to the party—that happened the last time Cho had promised to 'think about it' when it came to her invitations.

"Good. _Do _think about it." Elizabeth stood, grabbing her pink Prada tote off the ground as she did. When she stood, her breasts threatened to fall out of the front of her shirt, which she obviously didn't give a rat's arse about. Instead, she flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder and turned, quickly leaving the library.

Cho stared at her algebra text again, hoping to make sense of the homework. Maybe instead she'd focus on her philosophy paper that she'd neglected for three days…

At that moment, the heavy library door swung open again, and in walked Deana and her boyfriend, Scott Douglass. It was no secret that Deana disliked Cho; that seemed reason enough to take a rain check on the party that night.

"Oh, hey, Chloe!" she said, snapping her gum loudly. Cho cringed. _Where _was Madam Pince when you needed her?

Oh, at Hogwarts. Of course.

"It's Cho," she corrected yet again.

"Right," Deana said, completely ignoring the fact that Cho was doing homework; ditching Scott, she practically waltzed over to the table that Cho occupied. "Listen. Cheyenne." Obviously, Deana was paying _loads _of attention. "I'm guessing Elizabeth invited you to my party tonight?"

"Yeah, she did," Cho said uncomfortably. Knowing Deana, she was probably uninvited.

"Listen, it would be _great _if you got the alcohol for us. You know, just some Budweisers, Smithwicks, Stella Artois, and a bottle or two of rum would be _amazing._"

Great. She _was _invited. And would be expected to show up. Again. "I don't drink," she said uncomfortably.

"You don't have to _drink _it," Deana said, giggling. "Just pick up a few boxes, okay?"

"I'm also broke."

Shocking Cho to the core, Deana reached down her shirt and produced two twenty pound notes. "Just get something nice."

"That's a lot of money," Cho said uncomfortably. "I wouldn't feel comfortable…"

"Just take it," Deana said, her voice dropping to a sinister hiss and her breath warm and sticky on Cho's face. "Oh, and Shiloh?" _Where _Deana came up with each new name was beyond Cho. "I wouldn't spend too much time with Dudley, if I were you. Because I plan on ditching Scott, and when I do, Dudley's mine." She gave her a sinister smile before standing up, grabbing hold of Scott's hand, and fleeing the library.

* * *

Cho had never, ever bought drinks before. She had never drank in her life, not counting the time at her father's funeral when they served firewhiskey. She had ended up paying for that experience, though, retching a few hours later in the bathroom. When it came to actually purchasing alcohol, she was clueless.

Somehow, she didn't think that she was the only one buying alcohol for the party—after all, Deana seemed positively loaded—but she still had no idea what to get. Sure, Deana had given a few suggestions, but what would taste good to crazy college students? Cho had absolutely no idea.

Settling for a few boxes of Budweiser, since they practically leapt off the shelf, and a couple bottles of rum, she went up to the register. The freckly cashier gave her an odd look.

"Plan on drinking all that yourself?" he asked, a worried tone in his voice.

"No," she said. "It's—for a party."

"Hopefully the cops don't show up this time." Apparently, he was aware of Deana's track record as well. "That'll be thirty-two pounds."

She placed Deana's two bills on the counter hesitantly as he started bagging her items. She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, then took her purchases and left the store quickly. It was awkward walking back to Oxford, but she quickly went to Deana's room and knocked.

"Siobhan!" she said happily, Scott draped around her shoulder. "So glad you could make it. Oh, you brought the supplies! Come in, come in!" She practically dragged Cho into the room, which was abuzz with college students. "Since you're not a drinker, we have blue cups for you, but don't lose sight of it, kay?" She giggled, then pointed at the bar. "Just tell the bartender every time that you want a virgin…well, virgin whatever. He'll mix it in front of you, too. And relax! You look so sexy."

Cho was startled by the blunt comment, but said nothing, taking her purchases to the bartender, asking for a Coke—even being sure to tell him it would be virgin—and going to sit on Deana's sofa next to a bloke sitting all alone. For such a small room, a _ton _of people were there. She scanned the room looking for Elizabeth, but found no one.

"Wanna bum a cig?" the bloke next to her asked, wearing shabby clothing.

She turned, seeing him with a cigarette perched between his lips and reeking of smoke. "Er—no, thanks," she said, standing. "I was actually—going to look for the loo." With that, she stood quickly and raced down the hall, looking for the bathroom to try to escape for the action.

What she found instead when she turned the knob was seven minutes in heaven—Elizabeth _definitely_ wanted Ralph Martin to herself—then slammed the door and turned the other way.

"That was _definitely _not the bathroom," she told herself as she walked away. She went back to where the makeshift bar was, sighing and sitting at a barstool. She had to admit, Deana certainly had a very nicely decorated place.

"Fancy seeing you here," said a familiar voice, also holding a cup, though that one was red.

She looked up, seeing Dudley's handsome features. _Finally, _she thought, breathing a sigh of relief. _A familiar face._

"Hey," she said coolly.

"I take it you're not much of a partier, either?" he asked. She shook her head. "Neither am I. I don't mind a drink once in a while, but I used to have really bad habits in secondary school, so I figured I was gonna be a better man once I got to university. For the most part at parties I just casually observe. I only came tonight because Mark—you know Mark Jackson, from our maths class—he brought me here."

So Elizabeth was right, Mark and Dudley were friends. Cho said nothing about it, however. "Elizabeth dragged me here," she said.

"Oh, _her,_" he said, smiling. "She's definitely, er…a character."

"You're telling me," Cho groaned. "She always tries to get me to be her buddy, but really, we're not even friends."

"That's tough," Dudley said, leaning against the wall. He seemed to be quite taken with her.

"I guess, a little."

"Say," Dudley said, throwing his cup in the garbage—it was empty, quite like the rubbish bin. "What do you say we ditch this party? I doubt we're going to see our, er—_friends _for the rest of the night."

It didn't take an idiot to accept that offer immediately. Quickly, they made their way across the room and were out the door before anyone could be the wiser.

* * *

**Real quick. I am _not _a fan of Cho, but I kind of like her in my own writing xD I don't know why, really. Anyway, please review, it's two a.m. (anyone starting to see a theme?). I'm still not really sure where I'm going, but I get ideas randomly, sooo…**

**- Hatter of Madness**


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